Thursdays with the Crown (15 page)

“Isn't she lovely?” Lilah breathed. “I will call her Juliet.”

Mewling with hunger, the little griffin stumbled into Lilah's lap. Lilah cradled her delicately, while Celie snuffled away tears at the tender scene and worried about what they would do now.

They had two newly hatched griffins to care for (if they
ever found Lulath) and the fire was headed toward them. A smoke-clogged wind was blowing right in Celie's face, carrying the crack and roar of burning trees with it. Celie could see the flames through the trees around them now.

“Lilah, we have to go!”

Celie urged her sister to her feet. Rufus and his mother hovered around them, making cooing noises at the baby. Celie steered Lilah toward Rufus's mother, hoping that she would cooperate. She seemed wilder than her mate … and where was he now?

Lady Griffin, as Celie thought of her, did not seem concerned, however. Nor did she seem reluctant to have a rider. She dipped her wing so that Lilah could slither onto her back, sidesaddle, with baby Juliet cuddled to her ruined bodice. Celie showed her sister how to grip the scruff of the griffin's neck where the feathers were short and soft, since Lady Griffin didn't have a harness. Then Celie hurried to get onto Rufus's back. The griffins took off without any urging, but they didn't return to the tower. Instead they circled over the forest, coming ever closer to the smoke and flames.

“Where are we going?” Celie called to Rufus. “We need to get the baby to the tower!” The smoke made her cough, and she yanked weakly at his harness.

Lady Griffin gave a long, low cry, and a griffin within the cover of the trees answered it. Then a figure burst up out of the smoking forest in front of them. It was Rufus's
father, and he gave another cry and raced toward them. The other two turned in the air and followed the big male as he made straight for the tower.

Celie fell off Rufus's back onto the floor of the tower with great relief, coughing and hacking, her throat and eyes burning with smoke. Lilah slid off more daintily, still holding the crying baby griffin as delicately as if she cradled a breaking egg. Lord Griffin had gotten there first. He inspected Pogue and Rolf with a hard yellow eye and then took up a defensive position in one of the windows.

“Lilah,” Rolf said, sounding dumbstruck. “You have a griffin!”

“Isn't she beautiful?” Lilah crouched by the fire. “Is she hungry? Is that why she's crying, Celie?”

“Yes,” Celie said. “I just hope we have enough food, even for a very small griffin.”

Celie made everyone search their pockets until they located some hard bread to give to Lilah, who fed small pieces to the tiny griffin. Pogue and Rolf admired the little animal while Rufus and Lady Griffin looked on.

Celie longed to inspect the new griffin, but she felt herself drawn to the window instead. She didn't fit beside Lord Griffin, so she took up a position in the window next to his and looked out.

The forest was burning brightly in a great circle some hundred yards beyond the tower. The orange light was
vicious, and the smoke was blowing straight at them. As Celie blinked her smoke-reddened eyes, she saw that the fire really was a circle … a perfect circle that was getting wider and wider. One edge of the circle was moving along the shore of the poison lake, and it was also coming closer to them.

“Why is the Arkower doing this?” Pogue asked, looking over her shoulder. “He's going to destroy the remains of the Castle and the Builder's tomb!”

“I wouldn't give him the egg,” Lilah explained. “He found me in the forest and demanded that I give it to him. I said no, and then it started to hatch. He went mad, shouting that I'd ruined his plans, hundreds of years wasted, and such. I didn't know what to do, so I started to run, then he started the fire, and I just … screamed for help.” Her face, under its covering of sweat and dirt, glowed red. “The big griffin swooped down and chased the Arkower away, and then you found me, Celie.”

“Did he say anything about Lulath? And Lulath's griffin?” Pogue asked.

“He ranted about Rufus and Lorcan, and what a waste it was for Celie and Lulath to have them,” Lilah said. “But I don't think he'd captured Lulath. He wasn't
gloating
.”

“That's good,” Pogue said. He rubbed his face, wincing as his fingers encountered the lump where he'd hit his head.

“Lulath will figure out a way to get back here,” Celie said confidently. “He'll probably turn up with Lorcan and a basket of food he's located somewhere.” She went to Lilah and stroked Juliet's gold and cream feathers.

Lilah giggled. “That's true.” Then her expression clouded over. “The Arkower is insane,” she said with a shudder. “We should still look for Lulath, just to make sure he and Lorcan are safe.”

“Well, we met our own crazy old wizard in the ruins,” Pogue told her. “The last of the Hathelockes, apparently, and he had a great deal to say. We're just trying to piece it all to — Rolf, are you all right?”

Rolf was staring fixedly at the tiny griffin as Lilah continued to feed her whatever scraps of food she could find. He tore his gaze away for a moment, looked at Pogue and then Celie with an anguished expression, then back at little Juliet.

“Ye-es,” he said. Then, after a moment, “No, no I'm not!” He drew in a deep breath. “
I
wanted a griffin!”

They all blinked at him.

Rolf's face was red. “I wanted to bring this egg with us … well … I assumed
I
would bond with it,” he said. “Do you have any idea how jealous I've been of Celie since the minute I saw Rufus? I mean, she's already the Castle's favorite, and now it gives her this amazing creature, too?”

Celie shook her head. “You're the next king!” But she couldn't fight the little niggle of pleasure at being called the favorite.

“I'd rather have a griffin,” Rolf sulked.

“Oh, Rolf,” Lilah said impatiently. “We'll find another egg, and then you'll have your griffin. But for now we have other concerns!”

“You can say that: you have a griffin, and you never even wanted one!” Rolf snapped.

“The first king, the Builder, had a griffin,” Celie pointed out by way of making peace. She truly didn't want to be the king — er, queen. “I'm sure the Castle will want you to have one, since you're the next king.” She remembered the collar in her pouch. “And Daddy should have one, too, and it should wear the collar.” She realized that she was mostly talking to herself, and stopped. When they got home, then they would see what the collar could do. And the crown, and the rings.

“As Lilah said, finding another baby griffin that will need constant feeding is the last thing we need right now,” Pogue said, keeping vigil at the window. “The fire is moving closer and we still don't know where Lulath is.”

Celie went to stand beside Pogue again, ignoring Rolf, who continued to seethe. The other, still-dead tower had flames licking at its base. They could feel the heat beating on their faces even from this distance, and she felt her stomach tie itself in a knot. Would it hurt the Castle to be engulfed in flames? And what would happen to them? Stone didn't burn, usually, but this was a
wizard
fire.

“All right,” Pogue said. “We've got to move. Now. The fire is only getting closer, and I doubt the Arkower will care if we burn up in here.”

“I wonder if Bratsch could help us,” Celie mused.

“There's no time,” Pogue told her, turning away from the window. “And his hut is about to be consumed by the
fire as well. I say we get the griffins to take us around the fire to the Tomb of the Builder. I may be wrong, but from here it looks like it's still not touched by the fire.”

“Agreed,” Rolf said, shaking off his funk. “Everybody on a griffin!”

Celie checked that the ring, crown, and collar were safely fastened in her pouch. She mounted Rufus, and Rolf helped Lilah and Juliet onto Lady Griffin. Both young men looked at each other, then at the large male griffin still standing guard at the window. Pogue opened his mouth but it was Rolf who spoke first.

“Excuse me, sir,” he said politely, and gave a little bow. The griffin turned his head slightly to look at him with one eye. “We really must get ourselves and this baby griffin to safety. Would you be so kind as to carry my friend and myself to the tomb of the first king? The Builder?”

The griffin king studied him for another moment, then turned back to the window. Rolf's shoulders started to slump, but the griffin tucked his wings and dipped a knee to make it easier for them to mount.

“Sir, we thank you,” Rolf said.

He mounted, and Pogue after him. The big griffin led the way, leaping out of the tower and over the lake rather than the forest, which blazed angrily.

“Why is the Arkower doing this?” Celie muttered. “Why now? After all these years of not imprinting a griffin, why doesn't he just give up?”

Rufus carked in reply, sounding equally baffled, and
then it hit Celie. The Arkower had always wanted a griffin, wanted them for all his people. He'd practically destroyed his entire world to get one. And then Celie came, with Rufus. Rufus, who was devoted to her, and she to him, and proved that it could still be done. That even someone who'd never seen a griffin before could ride one. Oh, how that must sting! Celie thought. No wonder he was willing to burn down the forest to get to them! She felt a surge of terror and knew that they had to get away from Hatheland or the Glorious Arkower or whatever this place was, and fast.

Rufus flew wide over the lake, and in the orange glow of the fire Celie looked down over his shoulder at the peaceful cauldron of poison. She could not imagine hating anyone so strongly that you were willing to kill thousands of people and animals to rid yourself of your enemy. But then, the Arkower had had many centuries to develop his hatred of the Hathelockes.

They finally flew past the edge of the fire and landed in the little clearing where they had first found the map on the back of Lilah's cape. It seemed like weeks ago, but Celie realized with a shock that it was … the day before. Two days ago? With another shock she discovered that she honestly didn't remember. Not only that, she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten, and she was so tired that she fell trying to get off Rufus's back, and landed atop her makeshift pack with a whoosh of air.

“All right?” Rolf hurried over to help her up.

“Yes,” Celie gasped, winded.

Pogue helped Lilah down from Lady Griffin, then looked around. “We all need some sleep. Should we go into the mound?”

“And sleep in a tomb?” Lilah's voice cracked. Juliet was crying with hunger again, and Lilah looked strained.

“We really don't have much choice, I'm afraid,” Rolf said. “I was just going to suggest it myself. Halfway underground, it's probably the safest place to be.”

“The tomb is being nice, but in the tunnel is also having some rooms,” Lulath said, striding into the clearing with Lorcan still peeping out of the front of his ragged tunic. “Oh, my our dear Lilah! You are also having a fine griffin darling! What joy!”

The griffins broke into cries of welcome, while Celie was embarrassed to find tears of relief coursing down her cheeks. Pogue and Rolf could only gape, and Lilah, too, was in tears. Then she screamed and threw her arms around Lulath in an awkward embrace with the griffins squashed between them.

“You're alive, you're alive,” Lilah sobbed into Lulath's ruined tunic.

“Come along,” Lulath said, patting her back tenderly. “Not the tears now! Into this tunnel we will be having a go!”

Celie and Lilah and the others were all still trying to cry and laugh and hug Lulath and his griffin at once, but the tall prince was having none of it. He herded them around the mound to the entrance, griffins and all, nodding and smiling at their excited chatter.

“Yes, it is all so very,” he said. “But we are going in the tunnel now, and talking later.”

“What tunnel?” Pogue wanted to know.

“It is being a fine tunnel that I am finding in the nearness to the first king's place of final sleeping,” Lulath explained. “Come, only through seeing is there to be belief!”

As they followed him, Celie realized that they had five griffins with them. They would soon be able to fill the griffin stable back at the Castle.

If they ever got back.

“I am not knowing how far it is delving into this earth,”
Lulath said, approaching the entrance and easily pulling open the door. “But we are being very safe from the fire.”

They crowded into the Tomb of the Builder, which was even more brightly lit than before. Every torch blazed and threw long shadows around the dome-shaped chamber. Celie tried not to step on something, and to keep Rufus under control, as they crossed to where the king and his griffin were laid out on their biers.